Quranic Arabic Course

19Nov2017

quranic arabic course

Quranic Arabic Course The importance of learning Quran

Quranic Arabic Course Allah the Almighty revealed Holy Quran to Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, to be a guide for all Muslims till the Day of Judgment. In this regard, Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, ordered all Muslims to think about the meanings of Quran and to apply its rules and teachings in their daily life as He says, “This is a blessed book which we have revealed to you, prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, recommended all Muslims to learn Quran as ” Therefore, Muslims have to obey the orders of Allah and His messenger by learning Quran and understanding its meanings.

Quran is not one of the sciences that can be learned individually, rather Quran should be learned through the oral teaching so that the Muslim can read it in the way it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. In this regard, Allah says in his book, “those to whom We have given this Book recite it with its true recital. ” (Surah al-Baqarah 121). The true recital of the Quran means following its orders and reading it according to the reading of Prophet Muhammad(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Moreover, the messenger of Allah said to his companions, “Read Quran in the way I had taught you as those who lived before you were misled because they violated the orders of their prophets.” This means that all Muslims have to exert efforts in learning the true recitation of Holy Quran in order not to go astray by violating the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

Non-Arabic speakers and Quran

Quran has the been revealed in the Arabic language as Allah the Almighty says in His book, “These are the verses of the clear book. Indeed we have sent it down as an Arabic Quran” (surah Yousef 1-2). Therefore, the non-Arabic speakers who wish to read and understand Quran without depending on translation should learn Arabic. In this respect, there are many Quranic Arabic courses which are dedicated to the purpose of helping the foreigners to understand Quran. These courses care about teaching the non-Arabic speakers the Arabic language first so that they will be able to read and understand Quran. These courses are provided by many centers and institutes in any Arab country whether online or in the offices and centers.

Online Quranic Arabic Course

Nowadays, many students prefer to learn online as learning online has many advantages. For example, the learner will be able to cross the boundaries and learn Quran from his home, without having to travel to the places that offer Quran classes. Also, the student will be taught through qualified Quran teachers who have graduated from relevant universities. Moreover, the student can choose the time that he/she likes according to his daily schedule. Moreover, the online Quranic Arabic courses offer the possibility that the female students be taught by female teachers and the males be taught by men.

Quranic Arabic Courses

In the Quranic Arabic courses, there are many levels according to the standard of the student. In the beginners level, for example, the non-Arabic speakers should learn the Arabic alphabets and their pronunciation. To facilitate such process, some books offer the transliteration of the letters in the native language of the learner.

The Arabic alphabets

In this regard, the learners should be trained on reading the letters at the beginning, middle and the end of the word. Then, the teacher explains the vowels of Arabic (Harakat) like (Fthah, kasrah, Dhammah and Sukoon) and train the students on pronouncing the letters using such vowels. Also, the teacher gives the student an account on the definition of Maad letters (Alif/ Waw/ Yaa) and the way of their pronunciation. In this regard, there is an excellent way that is being used now in teaching Quranic Arabic, which is the Noorani Qa’idah as it helps in correcting the recitation of Quran through correcting the spelling of the Arabic letters with its vowels. It should be taken into consideration that the non-Arabic speaker must not be allowed to read Quran in Arabic at this level because he will not be able to read correctly and it will be difficult to correct such mistakes in the future even after knowing the correct reading. In some courses, the tutor teaches the foreign student the basics of Islam in addition to the Quranic Arabic language such as the five pillars of Islam, the meaning of faith, Ihsan and the names of Allah.

The Arabic words and basic rules

After knowing the Arabic letters and the basic rules of Arabic, the learners have to move to a higher level, which is learning and pronouncing a whole Arabic word. It is preferable to train the students on words from the Quran so that they will be familiar with the Quranic words. At this level, the learner should be given the parts of the Arabic speech (verb/noun), their definition and some examples. Then, the student should understand the way of treating numbers in Arabic and that in Arabic we have singular, dual and plural nouns. After that, the student should be introduced to the Arabic pronouns, first-person pronouns, second person pronouns and third-person pronouns, with some examples from the Holy Quran.

Quranic verses

Then, after passing the stage of learning the letters, vowels, separate Quranic words and the basic Arabic rules, the learners should move to an advanced level and be trained on reading a whole Quranic verse. Also, it is helpful that the learner listens to some Arabic stories from the Quran as this will help him to get adapted to the Arabic sounds.

Learning the rules of Tajweed

After that, the learners should be given the rules of tajweed to improve their recitation and read the Quran in the way it was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Here, the learner should know the meaning and the importance of the science of tajweed and that these rules are meant to beautify and adjust the recitation as prophet Muhammad(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “ beautify Quran with your voices.” This shows the importance of learning the rules of tajweed to recite the Quran correctly because the rules of tajweed help the reader in meditating the meanings of Quran. In the beginning, the learner should know that Allah the Almighty revealed the Holy Quran to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) through angel Gabriel with the rules of tajweed. At that time, these rules were used naturally by the Arab people in their speech.

Consequently, the messenger of Allah and his companions used to read the Quran in this way and this reading was passed from a generation to generation till our present day. However, because the Arabs dealt with other nations with different languages, their classical Arabic language was greatly affected. That’s why they need to study the rules of tajweed to reach the sound reading of the Holy Quran. Similarly, the non-Arabic speakers who want to learn the Quran should study and apply the science of tajweed while reading.

The characteristics and Makharij of Arabic letters

In the course of tajweed, the teacher explains the content of the science of tajweed gradually. In the beginning, he tells the learner that each letter of the Arabic alphabets is pronounced from a certain point, which is called makhraj (an exit) and that each letter has some certain characteristics. The learner should know that there are five general exits, according to Ibn al-Jazari, which are the tongue, the lips, the nasal passage, the throat and the chest. Then, the student should be introduced to each Makhraj, its letters and the correct way of pronouncing each letter. This must be done through the practical teaching as the theoretical explanation alone will not work at this stage. The teacher notices the way in which the student pronounces each letter and guides him/her to the right place of each letter.

After that, the student is introduced to the characteristics of letters like Hams, Jahr, Isti’la, Festival, Rakhawah, Al-Tawassut, shiddah, Itbaaq, Infitaah, Izlaaq, and Ismaat. He should know the letters of each of these characteristics and the mechanism of applying them with examples from the Quran.

The rules of Nun/ Meem Sakinnah and Tanween

In the next level, the student should be introduced to the rules of Nun Sakinnah and tanween which are Idgham, Idhar, Iqlaab, and Ikhfaa. The following lessons will be about the rules of Meem Sakinnah and tanween with examples and exercises. Finally, the student should be taught the rules of Laam, Raa and the heavy and light letters

After learning the rules of tajweed and the correct way of reading Quran, the learners start reading and memorizing Quran from Juz’ Amma, and Quran will be divided into parts according to the number of the levels in the course. It is important that the student takes an exam before moving to the following level to make sure that he has understood the previous level. Also, the learners should be advised to listen to Sheiks who recite the Quran correctly and to try to imitate their pronunciation because this will help them a lot in improving their reading.

The difficulties that face the non-Arabic speakers while learning Arabic for the purpose of reading the Quran

Learning any new language is not an easy task. As for the Arabic language, we find that the non-Arabic speakers who wish to learn Arabic to read the Quran and understand the religion of Islam face some common obstacles while learning. One of the common difficulties that face the non-Arabic speakers in learning Arabic is the duality of language. This problem goes back to the fact that the vast majority of the Arab people use colloquial Arabic, so the non-Arabic speaker finds a great difference between what he/she is learning and the everyday speech of the Arab people. Also, there are some difficulties that are caused by the many rules of the Arabic grammar and the Arabic letters which are written but are not pronounced.

Moreover, the learners encounter some obstacles because of the Arabic sounds which do not exist in their mother languages. For example, the English-speaking students find a great difficulty while trying to pronounce Ain, Qaaf, and Ha because they do not have such sounds in their language. The result is that some learners pronounce some Arabic words wrongly by exchanging a sound with another. Also, the Arabic learner faces difficulty in conversation at the beginning because he does not have a stock of Arabic vocabulary. Moreover, it should be taken into consideration that there are some individual differences among the students according to their age and their mother languages. For example, it is noticeable that learning for the old age students is much more difficult than for the young students. Also, learning Arabic is much easier for the students who know the languages that are similar to Arabic like Hebrew and Aramaic languages.

Throughout centuries, the specialized linguistics have been trying to solve such problems through developing new easy and simplified curricula for the non-Arabic speakers. Also, the centers and institutes that are concerned with teaching Arabic for the non-Arabic speakers try to facilitate the process of teaching through using the modern technology and hiring qualified teachers.

Finally, the Arabic learner should be patient and should exert hard efforts to attain his goal and learn the language of the Quran to be of the people of the Quran. In this respect Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him said, “the companions of the Quran are the people of Allah and his chosen people.” Moreover, when the learner reaches the point of mastering the Arabic language and reading Holy Quran correctly, he/she will forget their tiredness and pain and will only feel the spiritual enjoyment of understanding the words of Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He register to learn quran – online quran classes .